Octo_Russ

Schumann - Piano Concerto [Larrocha/ Davis-London Symphony Orchestra]

This is the sixth time that the Schumann Piano Concerto has featured in my Blog this year, almost once a month, maybe it just happens to be a blitz, playing lots of versions regularly, or maybe it really is popular in my life, certainly every time i hear it i enjoy it so much.

I bought this disc for two reasons, one was the coupling of the piano Concerto with the Piano Quintet, a logical coupling when you think of it, the other reason is the booklet/presentation, a clever picture of some tropical leaf fronds, a nice layout on the back inlay too, plus Larrocha is a good Pianist.

Alicia De Larrocha was a Spanish Pianist, who passed away in 2009, the queen of Spanish music [especially Albeniz], this disc was recorded in 1991.

For me the first movement is a lovely Fantasia, a Concerto that seems very free-wheeling and unstructural, i must admit that listening to this performance, i notice that Larrocha is very much in the 'staccato' camp of Pianists, and at certain points it just seems a little overdone, when a lovely legato would have worked wonders, the opening is inspired, an orchestral outburst followed by jumpy piano chords, and then the lyrical oboe lines, and the piano mirroring those lines, a great introduction [0:00-0:53], and it's this piano mirroring the woodwind that features elsewhere [3:37-3:52], there's a gorgeous sweet and gentle central section between the piano and clarinet, where a dialogue takes place [5:05-6:51], this time the piano speaks and the clarinet replies, for me it's the best section of the whole Concerto, after a fairly long cadenza where Larrocha shows off her pianism, the coda comes in [15:29], and it's an inspired ending, i especially like the way the piano has some nice warblings just before the end [16:04], no wonder the first movement seems 'a Piano Concerto within a Piano Concerto', it was composed as a complete piece, and with its slow lyrical middle section, it was already a Piano Concertina of sorts, the two following movements were added later.

Here's the first movement being played by Amir Katz on YouTube.